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Photographs & Paintings
The Photographers & Painters included in this section were all born in Germany. Almost all of them immigrated in their 20’s to Canada, some of them lived most of their life in Vancouver, BC. Under the tab “Historical Photos” are photographs of German Prisoners of War during the First World War, a Swiss village near Golden, BC, etc.

 
 

 

Cornelius Krieghoff
Painter
Western Canada

Krieghoff was born in Amsterdam, Netherlands and when Cornelius was a boy, his father returned to Germany and worked for Wilhem Sattler to establish a wallpaper factory, living in Schloss Mainberg. He was initially taught by his father and then entered the Academy of Fine Arts in Germany about 1830 and moved to New York in 1836. Together with his wife Émilie Gauthier, he moved to Montreal around 1846 and participated in the Salon de la Société des Artistes de Montréal. According to Charles C. Hill, Curator of Canadian Art at the National Gallery, “Krieghoff was the first Canadian artist to interpret in oils… the splendour of our waterfalls, and the hardships and daily life of people living on the edge of new frontiers”.

 

 

LINKS: National Gallery of Canada | Historica Canada | UBC | WorldCat

 


 

Carl Rungius
Painter
Western Canada

Carl Clemens Moritz Rungius, 1869-1959, well-known wildlife and landscape painter, was born near Berlin, Germany. He attended the Berlin Art School in 1889, and later studied at the Academy of Fine Arts and School of Applied Arts in the same city. In 1910, he moved his studio to New York City. He made a trip to Alberta the same year, at the invitation of Jimmy Simpson, and was so impressed with the Canadian Rockies that he made annual pilgrimages from then until 1921, when he built a studio in Banff. He lived most of the year in Banff until 1958.

 

 

LINKS: Glenbow Museum | UBC | WorldCat

 


 

Herbert Siebner
Painter & Artist
British Columbia

Herbert Johannes Josef Siebner (April 16, 1925 – August 3, 2003) was born in Stettin, Prussia. Siebner was an Expressionist painter, printmaker, and sculptor and studied graphic arts under Max E. A. Richter in Berlin. In Germany, he had to serve in the German Army during the Third Reich from 1943 to 1945, until he was captured by the Soviet Army in 1945. After the war, Siebner studied at the Academy for Fine Arts & Culture, Berlin under Prof. Max Kaus and Ernst Schumacher and was soon exhibiting his works in exhibitions and galleries. Siebner emigrated to Canada in 1954, settling in Victoria, BC, where he opened an art studio and began teaching his craft.

 

 

LINKS: UBC | WorldCat | Artists in Canada | FOCUSonline

 

Leonard Frank
Photographer
British Columbia

Leonard Frank was a well-known professional photographer in British Columbia. He was born in Germany and first moved to San Francisco, before travelling to Alberni, B.C., to work in the mining industry. He began his photography interest there. In 1916, he moved to Vancouver and began to work as a photographer. He later established Leonard Frank Photo Studio.

 

 

LINKS: Vancouver Public Library | The Jewish Museum & Archives of BC | A Scattering of Seeds | UBC | WorldCat

 


 

Fred Herzog
Photographer
British Columbia

Herzog born September 21, 1930 in Stuttgart, Germany, grew up in Stuttgart, but was evacuated from the city during the aerial bombardment of the Second World War. His parents died during the war (of typhoid and cancer), after which he dropped out of school and found work as a seaman on ships. He emigrated to Canada in 1952, living briefly in Toronto and Montreal before moving to Vancouver in 1953. He had taken casual photos since childhood, and began to take photography seriously after moving to Canada.

 

 

LINKS: Canadian Art | Time | The Globe & Mail | YouTube | AhornTV | UBC | WorldCat

 


 

Wilhelm Hester
Photographer
Western Canada

He was born in Germany in 1872, and moved to the Pacific Northwest in the US in 1893 with his brother Ernst. There he photographed the tall ships that sailed the Northwest coast loading lumber and grain for markets abroad. Operating from studios in Seattle and Tacoma, he established a commercially successful business by taking and selling photographs of ships from around the world and their crews at various Puget Sound ports, often offering them as souvenirs to the sailors themselves. Many of the photographs depict ships in the ports of Seattle, Tacoma, and Port Blakely, and reveal details of ships’ decks, ship construction and rigging, interior views of masters’ salons and cabins, the faces of the ships’ captains and their families, and sailors from Britain, Germany, Italy, Sweden, and France. He also took pictures from Western Canada, especially from the Yukon.

 

 

LINKS: University of Washington | Online Archive of California | UBC


 


 

Carl Spreitz
Photographer & Artist
Western Canada

Born in 1927 in Graz an der Mur, Austria, Spreitz witnessed the rise of National Socialism and its effect on German and Austrian society. After the Anschluss in 1938 he saw the travelling exhibition of “Degenerate Art” and was introduced to the art of members of the Bauhaus, Expressionist and Dadaist artists. Spreitz immigrated to Canada in 1952 and went on to graduate in 1957 from the Brooks School of Photography in Santa Barbara, California. He worked as a newspaper photographer in Prince George for the next year, engraving all of his own plates. It was not until the 1959 when he moved to Victoria, however, that his artistic style developed and film and photography career began.

 

 

LINKS: University of Victoria | UBC

 

Monashee Road being built by German Prisoners of War near Vernon, BC
Photographs
British Columbia

 

 

LINKS: BC Archives

 


 

Damage to German shops, offices, etc. during the riot in Victoria, BC after the sinking of the RMS Lusitania
Photographs
British Columbia

 

 

LINKS: BC Archives

 


 

Breaking Land, Sudeten German Settlement near Tomslake, BC
Photograph
British Columbia

 

 

LINKS: BC Archives

 


 

The German Hurdy Gurdies, Stirling’s Saloon, Barkerville, BC
Photograph
British Columbia

 

 

LINKS: UBC Archives

 


 

Golden, BC. Swiss Guide Village
Photographs
British Columbia

 

 

LINKS: BC Archives

 


 

Vanderhoof, BC. Mennonite community
Photographs
British Columbia

 

 

LINKS: BC Archives

 


 

Railway Station – “Depot, Strassburg, Sask.”
Photograph
Saskatchewan

 

 

LINKS: Saskatchewan Archival Information Network

 


 

View of the exterior of the Heimthal Church (German Lutheran) east of Ellerslie, Alberta
Photograph
Alberta

 

 

LINKS: Provincial Archives of Alberta

 


 

View of unidentified men standing outside the German American Colonization Company. Post Office housed in same building. Stettler, Alberta
Photograph
Alberta

 

 

LINKS: Provincial Archives of Alberta

 


 

Mid-nite Serenaders at the German Club, Edmonton, Alberta
Photograph
Alberta

 

 

LINKS: Provincial Archives of Alberta